Friday, September 03, 2010

10 Questions

Greetings friends. Hope you enjoyed the Sleepy Sun live show and it satisfied enough that you didn't know there was no post last weekend. (Celebrations for 25 years of wedded bliss went according to plan & design. Love is love and not fade away.)

Back with another great installment of "10 Questions." Today's guest hails from Lille, France. Fast gaining steam as a hotbed of great bands, among them the Cotton Club! Their Between Drones And Daisies ep from last year still burns the Sennheisers here at Trip Inside...HQ! Try it! (That opener, "My Technicolour Dream" sets the pace and mood magnificently: )

So, today we're honored to have Charles Monnier give the survey a whirl!

Allez-y!

1. In ten words-or less, define "psychedelic music."

A sound with a lovely loop in it.

2. What is the most psychedelic instrument, why?I don't know, it depends on who's playing on it and the way it is recorded! Ray Charles was an ace on a wurlitzer, John Cale is an ace on the upright piano, Sonic Boom is an ace on the EMS Synthi... For every church a pope you know...

3. What is your favorite psychedelic album of all time?

The last album of MGMT's......co-producer's first band Spacemen 3 album, Perfect Prescription (haha).

4. What sources, outside of music, inspire your music?

60's and early 70's French variety with good old bass sounds and violins (and if it's possible recorded in the French Riviera, Fréjus or St Raphaël was great in the early 70's for example).

5. What song or album that wouldn't fall into the classic "psych" definition is, nevertheless, psychedelic to you?

Air - Moon Safari album

6. Is there an advantage in being the pioneers (60s psychedelic bands), or being the continuing explorers armed with the knowledge of those pioneers work (the modern psychedelic bands)? Why?

I think the most important thing is to have a strong vision and faith in the music you compose, whatever if you're born in the 60's or in the 00's.

7. Assemble a psychedelic "Supergroup" of current musicians for us?

Everyone in it but Johnny Halliday

8. Is the psychedelic genre still viable today to artists working in it?

Hopefully it is not viable in France, that's why we are here standing.

10. Turn the tables, if you'd like, and ask me a question.Charles: Do you think psychedelic movement has ever existed in the french culture?-valis: I've no doubts, at all. Between Carnac & the Surrealists the French may have been at it for far longer than any other group. (It took the rest of the world 'til the 60s to catch up.) Vive le France! Toujours.